The cat fight between Netscape and Microsoft is hotting up.

It appears that this move is in direct response to Microsoft's continued leverage of their market clout to grab a greater share of the browser market. Netscape claim in their press releases (available on their web site) that where both products compete on equal ground - ie the educational arena where Netscape has always been free, that Netscape is by far the preferred browser.

Current browser statistics are getting hard to find for some reason, but stats from 3 sources - our own, US continental and Hawaii, indicate a recent increase in Netscape usage from about 60% up to as much as 90% of all visitors across a wide cross-section of user types.

It's a bold and risky move for Netscape, browser sales made about 15% of their revenue at the time they made it free. They also went one stage further and have announced they will release the source code to approved developers for Netscape 5, the next version. This move is designed to encourage developers to use the Netscape product and improve on it, with the best improvements being incorporated into official releases. An interesting move that Microsoft is unlikely to match.

Microsoft on the other hand seem to have backed down to the US Court at the last minute and agreed to unbundle IE from their 95/98 OEM requirements and allow OEM's (pc manufacturers) to load alternative software if they wish. Other sources claim they will be offering two versions of their 95/98 Operating Systems - with IE or without. Microsoft are currently denying this.

Netscape press releases can be found at
http://home.netscape.com/company/press/pr/
Netscape Free Client FAQ can be found at
http://home.netscape.com/communicator/free_faq.html
Microsoft stories can be found at
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/content/smro/0313/294361.html

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Netscape Update:

As well as making their Browser available for free, Netscape have also relaxed their previous stand on download sites. ALI has signed up for Netscape's distribution program, so you can now download a later version of Netscape by going here. This link will also give you pointers to information on the risks associated with the current browsers, and what you can do to minimise those risks.